Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Caboladies - Constellation Deformity

Oh Caboladies, why have I not heard of you before now? Perhaps it’s your extremely limited runs that seem to only be available on CDRs and cassettes that has kept you from my ears. I’ve somehow known about you though. It seems that in these last couple of years in which you’ve been developing - sprouting effervescent leaves of alien beauty - I’ve had this gut feeling that something of your ilk was blooming and maturing somewhere out there; like this missing link in the world of underground ambience that just had to be. Someone had to be making this music and I knew that if I kept my ear to the ground long enough, eventually you’d stroll by and like those clichéd moments of love at first sight, we’d lock eyes, coyly look away and then in a more intense manner, reassert our gaze towards one another, confirming our wordless attraction for one another. The greeting would be awkward, sure. You are simply awkward in nature, and, well, so am I. But we’d stumble through those moments with the driving force of sheer excitement and unbridled enthusiasm for what was always mean to be: a wide-eyed boy and thick layer of Caboladies knifed onto two sides of a cassette. At least that is how I wrote it in my journal. “What is Caboladies?” you (the reader) might ask. Well, I really have no idea. As far as words go, Caboladies is simply nonexistent (right Dictionary.com?), but in the context of this band, Caboladies is a group concerned with creating layers of chirping, chiming, bubbling tones that are overwhelmingly powerful, overwhelmingly odd and overwhelmingly beautiful all at the same time. On this specific cassette, the title says it all. Constellation Deformity is certainly what this is. It is astral projections deformed into an internal catharsis and then regurgitated into a spacious blend of melodic weirdness that should probably be weirder than it is, but turns out being gorgeous and enlightening. I try not to do this so much, and especially after so clearly hyping that Burial + Four Tet 12”, but Caboladies are likewise in the running for album of the year. If Caboladies have one thing on the formerly mentioned all-star 12”, it’s a fresh face and a fresh sound. I am digging this in a HUGE way. A+++++++++++.